"You damn icicle, I've missed you so much!"

Baxus wasn't late to respond to his brother's welcoming punch – he blasted him with explosive impact, bursting a big hole through his stomach. A friendly battle of the brothers broke out, while the Bakhals whooped and roared in their squealy tongue. Fortunately for the frightened Hawthorne family, this showdown was brief – Chief Jobakh could well notice Baxus had brought guests which included some humans, so he realised he should be more moderate than usual. After the exchange of explosive hits and kicks, the two brothers rebuilt themselves and Baxus presented the humans as his maternal family.

"You're so tiny and cute like Chiefess Julie!" Jobakh exclaimed in Aenglish once beheld Marie and her daughters. He had a rough Bakhal accent, but it sounded rather cuddly than violent when articulating soft and flexible Aenglish words. "You're the same size as Julie, you'd fit on my hand! Violet is a bit tinier, I'd caress her only with my forefinger, and this one... aww, so minuscule! Ellie, right?"

He rubbed the little child's head with his little finger, substituting his icy-lava skin with dry sand in order not to affect her too much. Ellie giggled in amusement. Baxus then presented him as his brother Jobakh Meelias – the current chief of the Bakhals and one of the few to have travelled on Earth long ago. It seemed that young Jobakh (who was now more than one-million-year-old) had followed his mother Elexiba on her journey to Earth. While Elexiba was named 'Laufey' in human legends, Jobakh received the name of 'Loki' – a mischievous god, hinting upon his complicated character which he had retained even to this day.

"Humans created a lot of weird legends about us. We heard about them only later when Chiefess Julie took abode here," he told his guests much amusedly while showing them around the underground Bakhal city corridors, "They counted us as fearsome demonic beings or even gods. Mother and I, together with the Bakhal Jotunn who had accompanied us, had much fun back there. We even brought some of the Bankalix on Earth. Back then, it was still icy cold in many parts of the planet, so we coped with the climate quite well. Chiefess Julie told us about fictional creatures such as the yeti and the bigfoots. We could only conclude that humans referred so to our Bankalix they had seen ages ago".

"So our cultures were connected even in the past?"

"Oh, Ellie, not only the Bakhal but every culture has been connected to Earth at some point," Baxus smiled, "The Earth has proved to be one of the best planets, so many aliens had been casting their faulty experiments there to find out whether these latter ones could make it or not. The pegacorns, the Radenoids, the Reptiloids, and many others have used Earth as a new home for their creations".

"For a long time, the Reptiloids had been taking over, since they had created a vast population of the dinosaurs," Dohta added, "Even the Hubassukk and the Bulbul had long sent down their insects and fishes on Earth. These species coexisted with the Reptiloids' creations".

"Yes, but in the end, humans prevailed," Arubah cut in with a proud smirk, "The Radenoids annihilated the dinosaur population in order to free some space for their new colony. I guess that is the reason the Reptiloids do not wish to give up on it even now".

"Those damn lizards don't deserve any more than their base planet Retti!" Baxus sneered, "They're annoying to all of us".

"Well, they're certainly not getting here in Bakhassa. So you guys can take as much time as you need and relax from your toils, more so that father would certainly want to meet Chiefess Julie's family!"

"Of course, Brother Jobakh! So, where's our dad?"

While Baxus and Jobakh led the guests through corridors deeper and deeper into the ground floors, they could behold the Bakhals' daily fuss: running around creating new tunnels and blasting some old ones; getting blasted by the unpredictable explosions occurring in many places of the planet; rebuilding their parts or dying right on the place to be eaten by their friends for these latter ones to grow even stronger and sturdier (since the Bakhals' diet included stones, fire, and lava – the very substances they were made of); hunting the Bankalix – these strange round creatures with big white fur, no eyes, and colour-changing skin; getting hunted and eaten by the Bankalix; bathing in lava and smashing each other for amusement; accidentally killing each other during these fun activities then to consume the slain comrades as if nothing; fighting on purpose and blasting each other with nobody stopping them but rather even encouraging them to destroy each other's cores because a dead Bakhal meant a new feast; casually dropping new stones into the lava-incubator so that they would hatch into babies when it was due, and if these very stone-eggs were to burn down by any chance, then so be it, they apparently were too weak to deserve their birth, at least they'd strengthen the lava-incubator for later babies to come; and of course, squealing at each other to "damn open the passage", "get out of the way or be blown up", and "smash and die for the sake of it".

"Goodness, such violence!" Marie couldn't help but comment on these flashy activities since she well realised her sister had to live in such an environment for many years and even had a son with such brutal beasts. "H... How did Julie cope with this?"

"Chiefess Julie did have a lot of concerns regarding our traditions," Jobakh laughed, "You, foreigners, are such fragile-hearted creatures! You cannot hear the call of your universe, the heartbeat of your nature, so you only listen to your minds and act according to some 'morality' or whatever. Nah, we don't need that here. As long as our destruction serves to create younger matters that our universe needs or to strengthen the already-existent brethren of ours, we'd gladly give our lives. If you're not useful alive, then had better die and be useful as food. Have a problem? – Blow it up. That is how we Bakhals and the other creatures of Bakhassa get by".

"But what about your children? Your beloved? Are you not concerned about their lives?"

"Nah, I told you – we don't fear death. In Bakhassa, it's either kill and be useful, or be killed and be useful. Our universe needs its fuel to live on, and we're the ones to provide it. We love our lives, yet we fear no death. We enjoy every moment given until it ends. We don't have such things as 'beloved' and 'parental love' or whatever. We all are brothers and sisters here, every elder Bakhal is our aunt and uncle, and every smaller Bakhal is our kid. As for our parents – they have millions of other children and they get blown up daily, so who cares? My mother lives far across the distance on the 900th planet while I live here on the first one. One thing we have in common – we help each other in any way we can to keep our universe pumping. Other than that, we have no issues to care about. If an issue arises, we blow it up. Chiefess Julie would often compare our behaviour to the wild law of nature – eat or be eaten, nature uses you to move on. That is exactly how we live, and we are happy with it".

"Don't worry, Auntie Marie," Baxus tried to console the woman once noticed she and her whole family had grown frightened by these beastly laws, "Father is different, so mom managed to adapt to this situation – he provided every means just to let her be happy with the life here".

"Yeah, Elder Chief – our father – is truly an extraordinary fellow. He's the oldest of all of us – already five-million-year-old. The ones of his generation have blown up long ago and rejoined Bakhassa.

"Elder Chief knew Yuuh Arruroe. This latter arrived in our universe out of the blue – he was the first one to penetrate through. Of course, Elder Chief confronted him and they had a lava fight_ I mean bloody one. That's how you say it, right? Anyway, surprisingly for father, he was not able to beat this intruder, since Yuuh possessed the Crimson Ardour power we were unacquainted with. After Yuuh shared words with my father and they exchanged views, they became what we call 'smashing buddies' – the best kind of bond we, Bakhals, can possibly form. Yuuh shared the wonders of the world with Elder Chief, and this latter decided to travel to those worlds on his own. Back then, I was already big enough to follow my family – my mother the Ice Queen and my father the Lava Chief. I followed the Ice Bakhals, while my father went with Yuuh alone. The two travelled a lot together. Father understands more of the other species than any of us do. I bet it's because of Yuuh's influence – that weird Daluma was quite persuasive, just like his off-springs here," he winked at Arubah and Maluma. "Oh, here we are!"

They had arrived at a certain giant stone-wall where some lava cascaded down into a river. Jobakh and Baxus blew through the lavafall with their explosive impacts and led the stupefied guests in.

It was dark inside. Only some smaller lavafalls illuminated the area, to reveal a magma boulder in the center, bigger than any Bakhal they had yet seen, even Jobakh himself. Marie and her family hid behind Baxus in fear. This latter reassured them with a smile and bowed to the giant boulder along with his brother Jobakh. Surprisingly for Violet, Arubah and his mates too knelt before the stone. Even Maluma, the queen of the Herminoids, bent her knees. Zehu instructed Zona and Dohta to do the same. In the end, they all were urged to follow the example. Once it was done, Baxus shouted in Bakhal tongue much in a submissive manner:

"My lord and father, please, receive us with benevolence in your abode! Your son has returned to seek your grace!"

The boulder cracked up, revealing gigantic arms and feet. It stood in all its magnificence before the startled guests. Its eye-hollows too, just like Jobakh's before, lit up with red flame-orbs. Violet recognized him as Baxus' father whose photo she had seen in the young man's room back on Captain Sinbad's ship.

They anticipated the same kind of a greeting as Jobakh's one – a violent punch at Baxus. However, this time, the welcome was different:

"Baxus, my boy, it's been so long! Come here and give your daddy a hug!"

It was not long before he and Baxus squeezed each other in warm embraces, making each other's stones crack since they both possessed some otherworldly strength. The Elder Chief's unusual warm attitude wasn't to end here, though – once Baxus presented the Hawthorne family as Julie's close relatives, he blew up in joy:

"Ah, my tiny Julie's sister and her whole family, on my planet? Beat the stones, you damn pebbles, we throw a party!"

The Elder Chief hitting walls and roaring in a beastly tone was enough of a signal for all the Bakhals to roll together and begin the preparatory fuss for an upcoming party he had announced so out of the blue. While Jobakh took charge of this whole bustling preparation, Baxus' father introduced himself to the guests as Garberbax Meelias – the eldest chief of the Bakhals to be still alive, and a good friend of Yuuh Arruroe, hence called 'Uncle Bax' by Maluma and 'Grandpa Bax' by Arubah. He revealed to be over five-million-year-old and to have been in many places in many universes, including the eerie one of Mordhor since its black particles didn't affect the Bakhals at all.

"I found Julie in Raden, on Planet Erebis, populated by the Radenoids," he narrated while conducting them towards Julie's chamber where Baxus had grown, "I was there with some of my sons and daughters to purchase certain food I had loved while travelling with Brother Yuuh long before. I was already familiar with the human breed and they really attracted me with their unstable and unpredictable nature. I loved hearing their tales from Jobakh and Queen Elexiba. The first human I had been introduced with was Roderigo here, Malu's chosen one," he winked at Roderigo much playfully. "We became brothers in quite a short time. I heard a lot more about humans from him. When I met Julie, I understood very soon that I wanted her for eternity, so I took her as was due".

"Wait, you didn't even ask for her opinion?" Marie was in dismay, "That's not the way you start a relationship with humans!"

"Why? Malu did the same," Garberbax shrugged in confusion, "Julie and I found a common language soon enough, anyway. She was happy here and our love grew so much we decided to give birth to Baxus, our mutual off-spring. We couldn't do that in natural terms, so we called for Malu's aid. She helped us combine Julie's genes and my stones, as well as a small part of my core, to create our ultimate hybrid. We placed the said artificial stone-egg in the lava-incubator and after due time Baxus hatched. Generally, it is female Bakhals who can divide their core into multiple pieces in order to give birth to new lives, but Malu helped keep me alive whilst sharing my own core. It is a mandatory organ to create a Bakhal child. That said – Malu could be considered Baxus' godmother".

He caressed the woman with his forefinger, expressing his utmost love and gratitude. Maluma returned him a benevolent smile, while the Hawthorne family listened to this whole story with astonishment. Violet watched Baxus in a daze realising he was not naturally born but rather created like some laboratory hybrid.

"Baxus being born that way did not sound unnatural to us Bakhals though, since we give birth by combining our stones, to begin with. We do not have such complicated systems as you humans do. Anyway, here we are," he led them in a safely-guarded big chamber behind a giant stone which acted as a door. "This is Julie's room. Everything is preserved as back in her time. She's told me a lot about you, Marie. She missed you and the parents very much. She always wanted to get back to Earth. So when she passed away, I made myself a promise to help Arubah with everything I could so that the Earth would fall in good hands again and Baxus would have a chance to choose which homeland to live in".

Marie's eyes filled with tears as she eyed the room which was still filled with the nostalgic, loving aura of her late sister. She touched fur blankets on a stone bed she once lay on; those beautiful golden and silver decorations on walls – of totems and mythological symbols Julie always loved even as a child; those pictures of Earthly nature – waterfalls with bears standing below in rivers, valleys with eagles soaring high in the skies, Mountain Cats on snowy cold cliffs, Winterwolves in arctic grounds, ancient tribal savages feasting around a fire; and the pictures on a bed-side table – the photos of Julie's childhood, with Marie and their parents, smiling with gaiety. It was not long before Violet, Ellie, and Gunther squeezed Marie in loving hugs for she had burst into heavy sobs. Baxus too arrived to embrace his beloved human family. Even Garberbax gifted them his stony hugs, softening his sturdy skin with dry sand cover to make his hug more affectionate and less painful.

Later that evening, the guests were welcomed around a fire on the Bakhal party. The Bakhals acted softer than usual, having been strictly warned by Elder Chief Garberbax. Their Bakhal Blow performances did not include actual life-taking as in general. Baxus introduced Zona Vaagard to Garberbax as his girlfriend and received his hearty blessing for the relationship. The couple performed some romantic Bakhal and Daluman dances, sealing their newly-formed bond. The spectators squealed, whooped, applauded much in joy, learning that yet one more of their princes had managed to step into the age of adulthood and not get blown up too young (since, in their society, it was quite common).

Violet observed the surroundings – the joyful mood of the Bakhals; her boyfriend Arubah laughing and exchanging hearty remarks with many of them, as if fully in love with their codes of conduct; Ellie mesmerized by flashy performances and furiously clapping along the rhythm; her mother Marie talking to Garberbax with elevated feelings, hearing more and more about her beloved sister's happy life; Baxus and Zona dancing with uplifted spirits; Maluma, Roderigo, Gunther, and Dohta conversing among each other and Garberbax, enjoying the party to its fullest; Zehu overjoyed since he was able to finally talk to his heart's content and be understood by everybody around him since they all either knew the Bakhal tongue or were telepathic creatures... Yet again, the only one who had a hard time deciding whether the Bakhals' way of life was good or bad and whether she should enjoy her time or cry for such cruelty, was she – Violet. Living by the laws of the Bakhassa Universe, coping with their fates and having fun, not caring whether they died or not? – Certainly, it sounded like a life without worries and full of inner peace, but... was it the right way?

Her gloomy reflections and the whole party was soon to be put on hold, though, once Zehu received a crystal call from Planet Cyberia, addressed to Captain Arubah – the news to stir up all of their hearts:

"Lord Captain, Lady Maluma! Captain Sinbad has gone to Planet Retti without alerting us! He wishes to face the Divine Emperor on his own!"